Steinman's Little Sister
by Neithacultra
Summary: What happens when Dr Steinman and Sander Cohen collaborate to create the perfect girl to sing, Rin? Then what will happen when Cohen decides to take her for his own pleasures, leaving Steinman to fight for her? This is a very weird crossover story, inspired by my addiction to Bioshock and Rin Kagamine. :p
1. Birth of Aphrodite

Chapter 1

She was perfect.

Aphrodite had blessed me with her divine power at last to create the perfect human being. It took long and hard weeks to construct her from the ashes of the cremated citizens, but at least the effort paid off in her immaculate form. All of the sweat, tears and blood at last taking shape.

I glanced upon her with caution, fearing that any sudden lurching would disrupt the process of her life energy accumulation. Her pale skin was supple, not too taut and not too loose. It wrapped smoothly about her round face, gleaming in the blinding lights of my torches. Her eyes were unnaturally huge and wide open, with irises of ethereal aquamarine. Her nose and mouth were minute, twitching every moment as the energy pumped slowly into her. Her short golden locks were in quite a mess, and I made a mental note to tidy them up later. Her petite figure was carefully drapped in entirety by a grey blood-stained blanket that I usually used for the corpses.

I waited as the ADAM filled her completely. I recalled how she came about in the first place. She was just an idea, but soon the idea blossomed and I just could not get it out of my head.

It was the city of dreams, they called it. Rapture. A seed of an idea that sprouted magnificiently in the great mind of Andrew Ryan, founder of the city itself. I came to Rapture looking for a chance to let my dreams take off, and indeed it did bestow me with that opportunity. The opportunity to be a surgeon, a cosmetic surgeon at that. I could manipulate the flesh so easily with all these amazing new tools and equipment that Rapture provides, along with numerous clients who were willing to let themselves be my artistic masterpieces.

The real chance came when I met this man named Sander Cohen. He was a magnificient artist, dominating Fort Frolic with all of his stunning works. I respected the man in every possible way and it came as a surprise to me when he invited to me for a chat one evening in the pub that he called Eve's Garden.

Meeting Mr Cohen in person was an amusing experience. He had a face that leaves deep impressions, it being so pale with his exoticly curly eyelashes and moustache. There was an air of aristocracy about the man as he spoke, something that felt slightly like a stiff upper lip though he was not from Britain.

"Hello, Doctor," he said casually to me as I sat beside him. "I have noticed your impeccable skill of sculpting the flesh."

"Yes, so as I have witnessed yours in your sculptures," I replied.

"I have an idea, Doctor," he whispered. "A very interesting idea. One that I wish you would be able to help me with."

"Go on," I urged, leaning forwards.

Cohen let his eyes dart about the chamber for a moment. When he scrutinised that almost everybody's attention was fixated on the stripper in the middle of the room, he turned back sinisterly to me.

"You see, Doctor," Cohen chuckled, "I just can't seem to find any women out there that impress me enough. I mean, take that one for example."

He pointed sharply at the dancing stripper with the flick of a wrist. She was already topless, and was slowly wriggling her way out the bottom.

"Looks fine to me," I mumbled, shrugging.

"That's where you fail, Steinman," Cohen spat suddenly. "Look closer."

I squinted my eyes and focused my entire attention on the woman's body. At first she looked entirely normal like any ordianry human being, but upon closer observation I realised that something was not right.

"Symmetry," I hissed. "Yes, the ratio. It's not there."

"And it never will be," Cohen said grimly.

I turned back to face his cold eyes. "So, you want me to - "

"Yes," he chuckled. "Create the perfect woman."

I stared blankly at him for a moment, but snapped out of it when he suddenly called for a drink in a stark tone.

"So, what is perfection, Cohen?" I inquired. "I just want to make sure we're seeing the same thing here."

"Perfection is a taboo," Cohen rushed. "Perfection is beyond human. We have to go beyond the limits. For example, look at my eyes. What do you notice?"

"They've got curly eyelashes?"

"No, don't focus on that. Look at it in relation to my body."

I nodded slowly. "They're too small."

"Exactly," Cohen grinned again. "But that's what you call ordinary. To make something perfect, we have to go beyond ordinary. Something that is human, yet not human."

"Okay, understood," I said. "But how am I going to 'create' this human?"

Cohen's drink arrived and he blatantly ignored it so as to answer my question. "Haven't you heard? They've found this new thing. This new thing called ADAM! The catalyst of all life! Surely you can obtain some for your scientific needs?"

I heard of ADAM just the day before in the news. It was some peculiar kind of stem cell that they found in the sea slugs about the city. I have never seen it in its physical form, but I have heard about its wonders and the miracles it has created. It gave a dying old man new life! It destroyed the cancer cells in a newborn baby! It counteracted the deadly effects of heart disease!

"I'll see to it then, Cohen," I said. "But hang on, what will we do with this artificial human?"

Cohen's face went blank for a second, but then he gave me a nasty grin and pointed at the stripper again.

"She will be an exhibition for all of us to appreciate!" Cohen laughed. "But of course, let's add a twist. Give her an amazing voice. I'm sure she will be a sensation down here in Eve's Garden! Hopefully, I may also star her in my latest musical! It will be a breakthrough, Doctor!"

"Yes, it will be," I chuckled along.

And the rest of the evening was spent in never-ending gallons of sumptuous drink...

As the life energy filled her, she began to breathe harder and faster. Her organs were forming much faster than I expected, and I knew she was going to be a healthy young one.

At last, her eyes moved to look at me. I grinned with satisfaction as I tested her to make sure she was ready. She was absolutely fine, and when she spoke to me, her voice was smooth and delicate, so velvety it may have been the voice of an angel.

"Hello," she said softly, managing a smile.

"Hello, my darling," I chuckled. "Aren't you just simply a masterpiece."

She did not really understand what I was saying, but yet she still blushed. She was probably about fourteen years old, a perfect youthful age, ripe and fresh. I felt a little sorry that a girl as beautiful as her would have to be born in such a grim place like my operation room, but still her sheer perfection pushed back the filthy darkness of the room.

"Now, get some sleep," I told her. She immediately shut off. I noticed how absolutely large her eyes were, so huge that it was not a human trait any more. Yet, it just seemed to make her perfect...

I invited Cohen to my office the next day to share my work with him. I could still remember the look on his pale face when he saw hers.

"My god, Steinman," he commended, straightening his moustache. "You did it. You really did it. I thought I was actually going to be disappointed, honestly."

"So what do you want to do to her now?" I asked.

"Does she have a name yet?"

"Not any that I can think of."

"She doesn't have anything to wear either, does she?"

"Nope."

Cohen fell silent for a moment, but then he snapped his fingers and said, "I got it. Give me two hours, I'll be back."

And with that, he scurried off.

Exactly five hours and six cups of coffee later, Cohen returned with a large suitcase in his hands. I gave him a glare, but he just shrugged it off and proceeded to laying the suitcase upon my desk. He clicked it open with a flourish and presented unto me a pile of odd clothes.

"Now what the hell is all this?" I asked, grimacing at the awful clothing. It was skimpy and looked entirely ridiculous.

"It's for the girl, Doctor," he hissed. "I did some research. I heard from a few Japanese tourists that back in their country, schoolgirls like to wear this kind of thing."

"Are you serious? It looks like some fetish suit for a sailor!"

"Trust me, Steinman!" Cohen growled. "It fits her exactly! I mean, just look at her! She's adorable! Surely you won't want her in some oversized dress? Making her look like a schoolgirl just emphasises her absolute freshness and her undying youth!"

I felt my left eyelid twitch. "Okay, whatever."

"Don't you whatever me, you prick!" Cohen snarled. "Come, help me unpack! Let's get her dressed."

I was entirely skeptical about the entire situation and felt like bailing out, but surely I did not want to lose the hard-earned respect from the great artist Cohen himself. So, I just followed his orders and got the girl dressed. It was then I realised the clothing did suit her entirely.

Her top was white, sleeveless and had the kind of collar you usually see on sailor's uniforms. It was all tied together appropriately with a scarf that matched the golden colour of her hair. She donned a pair of extremely short shorts which were black in colour and had it all belted together with a jagged orange strap. There were detached black sleeves about her forearms and lower thighs which contributed to her seemingly cyber appearance. To top it all off, she even had a dainty white ribbon atop her golden hair, which I must say made her look absolutely adorable. It was also satisfying to know that she liked the clothes as she just could not stop smiling and blushing for some apparent reason.

"Wow, okay," I said, nodding.

"See, what did I tell you?" Cohen chuckled. "Anyway, I came up with a nice little name for her."

"What?"

"Rin. Kagamine Rin."

"Are you sure that's English you're speaking?"

"Don't be an idiot, Steinman. It's Japanese. The name was suggested to me by my personal translator, and I love it! I mean, it's just cute, Steinman! Rin! Three simple letters combined into a word that one can speak of ever so easily. Oh, I just feel like saying it again! Rin! See how that brings joy in the air! Rin! Rin! Rin!"

"Oh shut up, Cohen," I spat. "You're being quite a nuisance."

"And so are you, if you don't agree with me on this matter. Anyway, I asked of you to give her a splendid voice. Mind if you let me hear her sing?"

I turned to the girl who was now named Rin. She grinned happily at me and nodded with an eagerness that one seldom sees in Rapture any more.

"Alright then. Go on."

Rin began to sing something that was absolutely foreign to my ears. It was like a song of the angels again, her sheer presence moving everyone about her. Sander Cohen was already kneeling before her, embracing her very existence with his outstretched arms. He wept at as she weaved the music, like a cloth so pure and white.

When she stopped, Cohen stepped up to her and beamed in a way that was not sinister, which greatly surprised me. He took her by the hands at began thanking her.

"She's perfect, Steinman," Cohen sniffed as he turned to me. "We'll have her tomorrow at Eve's Garden to sing for all of us."

"Okay then," I mumbled as Cohen pranced joyfully out of my office.

"Yes, darling, he wants you to sing for everyone to hear," I said soothingly.

She looked up at me with her head tilted shyly to one side. "Okay, then. But they may not like me..."

"Oh, they will. If Uncle Cohen likes you, they all will!"

"Alright then, if you say so!" she giggled, blushing once again for some reason I just cannot figure out. Either way, it made her look really adorable. She was immaculate in her form, and for once I knew how it felt like to have someone keeping me company about my office. Is this how it feels to have a daughter?


	2. Lonely No More

I apologise for the late update (and it's still the second chapter, AAGHH!). Time has been rather tight lately. But fret not, because here's chapter two, with chapter three coming soon (as I already wrote it halfway through before deciding on adding chapter 2 in between).

Chapter 2

Business was really slow in my cosmetic surgery department the next morning. Everyone was rushing to a new store that opened next to Chomper's Dental. I read in the papers that there was some good use put to the ADAM that the scientists found in the slugs, though the chemicals refined from the ADAM would not be for commercial use until next week. I assumed that the peculiar new kid around the block would be demonstrating some forms of the refined ADAM and the wonders it would do. I did not feel like trotting over for a peek, however, as I still had to keep a lookout for potential clients for a consmetic makeover.

I put Rin to sleep the previous night in the surgery room, due to the fact that there was absolutely nowhere else to keep her. I was beginning to feel a little guilty of locking her up in such a grim dreary place to pass the night. However, when she burst out at around eleven, she wore a huge grin that read she did not give a damn about her bedroom at the moment.

"Hi!" she called out to me, which nearly made me drop my cup of coffee. Such positivity was alien in Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals.

"Good morning," I said simply, and then out of some strange reflex added, "dear."

Rin giggled and sat opposite me at my solitary drinking table, which was a small circular platform set atop three twisting steel bars. She fumbled slightly with the high chair due to her petite stature, but eventually managed to perch herself atop it. She looked at me intently with her sparkling eyes, which was honestly getting on my nerves in a very subtle manner.

After about two minutes of awkward silence and staring, she pointed at my cup of coffee and asked, "What's that?"

"It's coffee," I spat simply.

"What is coffee?" she inquired, tilting her head slightly to one side.

"It is a drink," I said. "People drink coffee because we want to stay awake."

"So if I drink coffee, does it mean I will not have to sleep again for the rest of my life?"

I rolled my eyes and grumbled, "No. Coffee keeps you awake only for a short length of time."

"Can I have some coffee?" she squealed, putting her little face close to mine and beaming.

"No," I spat blatantly into her face. "You're too young. You'll go hyper with all that caffeine."

She wrinkled her nose and wiped at her cheek, moaning, "You didn't have to spit at me."

"Sorry, dear," I chuckled, and then wondered why I referred to her as 'dear' again. "You know what, why don't you go occupy yourself with something now."

"I'm hungry," she moaned.

I frowned instictively and groaned, "Do I look like a cook to you?"

"What's a cook?"

I slapped myself on the face with a palm and sighed, "Nevermind, I'll get you something to eat."

I strode irritatedly into the pantry that was located at the back of the lobby of my estate. Usually, all I kept in the dusty old place were blood bags and ocassionally organs that some patients felt like parting with. Fortunately, I managed to find a tin of biscuits hidden beneath heaps and heaps of blood bags.

"Here, eat this," I said with little concern, tossing the biscuit tin to Rin.

I returned to sipping at my coffee, and was rudely disturbed ten seconds later when a ball of semi-solid food hit me right between the eyes.

"Eww, what is that?" Rin coughed.

"Nevermind, I'll go get you something," I groaned, wiping off the half-chewed biscuits from my face. "Go occupy yourself with this."

I shoved a book into her hands that was titled "Cooking For Dummies". She glared at it stupidly as I left her there to go get some food. It was almost lunch time, anyway.

Food was awfully expensive in Rapture. Most of the stuff around the market are priced nearly three times more expensive than their counterparts above the surface. I decided to get some bread and potatoes as they were the cheapest of the lot, though I usually would go for restaurants as the estate was quite an inconvenient place to cook at. Blood could contimate the food anytime, as well as the uncountable pathogens in the filthy air.

When I returned to my estate, I saw Rin holding the book in her hands, where it was half-torn. I wanted to just go all out furious on her, but she looked guilty enough of her idiotic actions, so I tried not to let my fist fly into her cute little face.

"What the hell did you do to the book," I grumbled.

"I was hungry," Rin sniffed, blushing slightly. It was the blushes that did it. I immediately calmed down and passed her the bread and potatoes.

"You did read it, did you?"

"Yes, it was easy to understand," she said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so go cook something yourself with all this food I gave you. There's a kitchen in the back."

Rin suddenly beamed again with enthusiasm, which left me staring at her in puzzlement as she skipped into the kitchen. I shrugged and went to practicing with my scapel on a blob of gelatin to make sure I was flexible at all times should a client randomly show up.

About a couple of minutes into my surgical warm up, a foreign fragrance wafted its way up my nose. It made me feel slightly peckish all of a sudden as it smelt very similar to the food in the Kashmir Restaurant. A fine stew, they called it.

"Wait a minute," I hissed to myself. I threw my tools carelessly into the gelatin and strode back out into the living room, only to see Rin once again perched happily at the high table. Furthermore, the high table was not meant to support the piping pot that was dubiously plonked atop it.

"You made that?" I inquired with great skepticism.

Rin nodded and blushed (which was honestly starting to make me realise it was more of a reflex action for her than a voluntary action, and I made a mental note to check if she had compulsive blushing disorders). What shocked me next was that she gleefully dropped her hand into the pot and scooped up a chunk of bread smothered in dripping potato juices without any concern for table manners. She ended up making a terrible mess of sticky yellow-brown sauce on the table and floor as she engulfed the chunk of food.

"Oh my god, Rin!" I cried in despair, attempting to clean the floor with a rag that happened to be lying conveniently by my seat. "Stop eating like that!"

Rin frowned at me, juices dripping down the side of her cheek. "It's wrong?"

"Yes! Damn, do I have to teach you everything?"

"I'm sorry," Rin sniffed and blushed, again. "Rin won't make Steinman angry again."

"No, no, no, I'm not angry. I'm bloody furious! Why can't Cohen keep you instead? Why does he have to leave you with me? You're a bloody nuisance, dirtying my workplace! I don't have time to bloody babysit you!"

After about 5 seconds of huffing and puffing, I realised I may have gone overboard. Rin was staring at me with her mouth wide open and her tears forming in her eyes. When I looked back at her, she sniffed and immediately broke down crying, making quite the most annoying noise I ever heard. Oh god, what have I done?!

"Hey hey hey," I said softly but sharply, "don't get upset over that. I didn't mean what I said."

She wailed even louder and knocked the pot of food off the table, causing its contents to spill all over the shiny tiled floor of my estate. I tried not to scream and instead just groaned, which unfortunately led to even louder wailing from Rin, almost to the point where she was starting to scream.

"It's not your fault, you little idiot!" I spat. "Gahhh! Stop crying, will you?!"

She didn't. I felt like plunging sixty syringes into myself for being such a fool. My mind was not constructed to withstand the sheer power of a child wailing. Rin was so pathetic in a way that she was so easily hurt and pleased in a way even the children here in Rapture wouldn't understand.

"Okay, it's my fault!" I screamed, trying to fight against her wailing. "I was wrong to scold you!"

She wasn't convinced. "Rin is sorry! Rin is very sorry!"

I sighed and immediately thought of a brilliant idea. It seemed stupid, but hopefully it would work. Basically, I spent a couple of minutes heating up a bottle of old expired milk from the pantry, hoping that the milk was not too entirely spoilt. It seemed a little awkward to give Rin warm milk because she was already fourteen years of age. However, I guess it was still justified as she had only been in existence for a day and still had the mentality of an infant. I even put a sucker on the top of the bottle for extra measure.

"There, there, drink this," I whispered, sticking the bottle into Rin's mouth and patting on her back. Luckily, my plan worked and Rin began to calm down as she sipped at the milk. She was still sniffing though and was blushing tremendously again.

"Rin is sorry, Steinman," she muttered.

"No, no, no, I am sorry, dear," I whispered, and could not believe I was actually saying that. "Feeling better?"

She nodded and managed a small smile. "Thank you for forgiving me, Steinman. I want to sing a song now."

"Go ahead. And I shall be getting back to work."

"But can you listen to me sing?" she pleaded.

"Well, okay. You can sit around my office and sing as I clear all my paperwork."

Her emotions rocketed from abyssal misery to sheer jubilance, which frightened me slightly. Rin giggled and hopped by me to my office, where she began to sing to some of the records on my gramophone. It seemed weird for her to sing jazz though as it did not really suit her. She sounded even more awkward on the classical pieces as well. I almost felt like kindly telling her to get out of my office and sing to the fishes until the gramophone started playing a song by Helen Kane.

Rin's voice was somewhat similar to that of Kane's as she sang. Both were really high-pitched and sung in a kind of immature manner. I guess that would be too harsh a word to use, but that was what I felt anyway. It somehow allowed Rin to emphasise how adorable she was. I watched her with intrigue as Rin squealed to the song, and that made me feel how innocent and pure she was. She was not meant to be born in Rapture.

Soon, I realised that getting her to sing in Eve's Garden was quite wrong. She was just a child. I was beginning to feel that if I were to let her be harrassed by platoons of horny men, I would live my entire life in guilt. I had no idea why I was feeling that way, why I felt so responsible for her. She needed someone to take care of her.

"Did you like my singing?" she asked, her large eyes sparkling and her blush coming on again.

"Yes, Rin," I said dazedly. "It was beautiful."


	3. Responsibility

Chapter 3

The clock snailed its way past six. It was actually quite pleasant having Rin around to sing and sometimes help me sort out all of my equipment. She would hop by with that foreign air of joy, which was just what a gloomy office like mine needed. Sometimes, she even broke some of my tools and I felt like reprimanding her again, but usually before I could even say a word she would sniff and apologise in such an adorable manner that I just became obliged to let her off. It was already becoming natural. And for god's sake, she would not stop blushing even for the slightest second! There were instances when I felt like throwing her out of the office, but of course I knew that would only be disastrous as a fourteen-year-old girl with such a gaudy appearance was bound to attract a lot of attention.

At about six-thirty, Sander Cohen popped by with much more excitement than usual, which clashed awkwardly with his usual sinister facade. His face was just as pale as I last saw him, but this time his eyelashes seemed to have been curled more meticulously and a brighter shade of red was splashed across his mouth.

"Evening, Doctor!" he said. "Let's see the girl! It's her night, tonight!"

"You know, Cohen," I muttered, "I was thinking that maybe she should not perform at Eve's Garden."

"What are you talking about?" Cohen gasped, his eyes widening in shock.

"I mean, look at her. She's still young and pure. Eve's Garden is not a place for her."

Cohen nodded, but his eyes were grim. "Okay. Maybe I can relocate her to another venue? Maybe she can sing at the Kashmir Restaurant tonight?"

"Anything, Cohen," I said calmly. "Just don't make her a target for sexual perversion."

"Hmm, okay," he muttered curtly, his enthusiasm seemingly dying down. "Can I hear her sing again, though?"

I let Cohen have his time with Rin in my office while I went to tend to the needs of my first client of the day, who was in need of an urgent facelift.

By the time I finished it was about seven (I am a very swift worker, mind you), so I returned to my office to check on Rin and Cohen. However, when I got there the scene shocked me. Cohen had his arms reaching under the girl's top, and Rin did not seem to know what was going on, which agitated me further.

"Hey, arms off her!" I snarled. Cohen jumped and immediately released his grip of Rin. She just stared at him blankly, not having a single clue about what was going on.

"What the hell did you think you were doing, Cohen?!" I spat. "I told you that she is not for sex!"

"I apologise, Steinman," he muttered, "but I just couldn't resist! I mean, look at her! What was her name again? Ah, yes, Rin. Delightful little name."

"I did not create her to be a sex toy, Cohen," I growled, gesturing to Rin to leave the room.

"You mean 'we', don't you?" Cohen sniffed. "I gave you this idea! This is my fucking idea! Don't you fucking get it?"

"Please, don't use these words about her!"

"Why not? Fuck!" Cohen cried. "This is what I intended her to be for! Fucking! The perfect woman just for fucking!"

"You sick bastard," I muttered. "She's only fourteen! I don't want her to be plagued by corrupted minds like you! And to think that you were actually in it for creating that wonderful music of opera of yours."

"Think again, Steinman, you naive little prick," Cohen spat. "The reason why any man would want a perfect woman is purely for fucking! Fuck fuck fuckity fucking!"

"Shut the fuck up!" I snarled as I drove my arm right into Cohen's disgusting face. He yelped and withdrew instinctively, covering his face with his wiry hands.

"She is not yours, Steinman!" Cohen taunted. "She will be singing at Eve's Garden tonight!"

"No, she will not!" I shouted with rage as I kicked Cohen right in the fruits. He wheezed and doubled over, collapsing to the ground.

"What's going on in there?" Rin whispered, her head poking in through the door.

"I'll explain later," I muttered. "For now, take out the trash." I pointed at Cohen.

"What did Uncle Cohen do?"

"Just throw him out, Rin!"

She did as she was told, pushing the trembling unconcious body of Cohen out the office. I helped her by heaving the body and then dumping it in a nearby bathysphere, sending Cohen back to Fort Frolic.

"Why did you beat him?" Rin asked softly.

"He touched you, darling," I said. "He touched you."

"Is that wrong?" she asked, tilting her head to one side in perplexion.

"Damn right it is," I sighed. "It's wrong to have someone you don't know touch your body in such a manner."

"What kind of manner?"

"Sit down and I'll explain."

Within the next two hours which was supposed to be my dinner break, I explained to Rin about the norms of society and how a civilised society works. Then, when I got to the part about molestation, she slowly began to show traits of disgust in her face.

"Okay, now I understand," she whispered, hugging herself tightly. "He touched my left breast."

"Don't mull too much over it," I comforted her. "Just don't let that happen again."

"But what if it does?" she sniffed. "I'm scared, daddy."

Daddy. That was the first time she ever referred to me, and I did not actually expect it to be done in such a way. I sat there is silence for a moment in sheer awkwardness before moving to sit beside her and putting my arms around her to try and comfort her.

"No!" she cried. "Don't touch me!"

"Rin, I'm trying to make you feel better," I explained. "I'm not going to touch you in the way Cohen did to you. I'm just trying to comfort you."

"Why?" she asked, inching away from me as tears formed in her large blue eyes.

"Didn't you just call me daddy? I am someone who you can trust."

She nodded slowly and crept back to me. "What does it mean, for you to be my daddy? Why do I call you that?"

"I created you, my darling. You are my child, and it is my responsibility to protect you."

"Then protect me, daddy. Protect me."

She hugged me tightly and wept with her face rubbing against my shoulder, and I let her do it. It was a strange feeling. I never really thought that I would actually refer to her as my child. She was just an artificial human being, constructed out of the flesh of the ADAM slugs.

After a while, her crying began to soften and she looked up at me. "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, my dear," I replied, smiling sweetly. "Now get some rest, it has been a long day for you."

"Aren't you going to sleep too?"

"No, I still have work to do."

"Can you at least wait by me until I sleep? I'm still very scared."

"Okay then, my dear."

She lay down upon one of the operation tables in the operation room and I pulled a grey bloodstained sheet over her. I kissed her softly on the forehead and began to sing to her softly 'Daddy, won't you please come home'. She hummed along as well, until she finally yawned and subsided to sleep. I turned off the lights in the operation room and locked it to make sure no one could enter and find her there, for I knew that Cohen would be paying big bucks just to retrieve her. With that, I went back to work and clear off all the medicinal documents in my office.

I woke up with a throbbing headache. My mind felt like it was clouded with dust and smoke. What puzzled me further was that I could indeed smell smoke about in the air. The clock on the far wall read one o'clock in the morning. I clambered out of my bed and went to check on Rin.

Devastation consumed me as the impossible formed itself as a picture against me. The door to the operation room was torn apart as if it was paper, with fire still crackling away at their crumpled edges. Smoke obscured the path within, and to get inside I had to grab a wet towel and press it tightly over my nose. I flicked on the lights to find that the room was completely empty. Rin was nowhere in sight. All that was left on her bed was a small note. I snatched the yellowed piece of paper up and read it with anger.

"She's not yours, Steinman!"

I crushed the note and gritted my teeth. The mastermind behind all of this was obvious, though I was wondering how he managed to blow the door open. Explosives were kept far from the Medical Pavillion, most of which are usually kept in the storage bunkers in the lower levels of the city.

Unless the ADAM they discovered could do this...

I yelled at nothing in rage and thundered out my estate, storming to that new store that claimed to demonstrate wonders with the ADAM. It was a flashy little place with bright colours and loads of advertisments pasted across it. A perfect little place it was, apart from the fact that its large window had been shattered. There did not seem to be anyone around at such a late hour, so I let curiousity take me by the reins as I crawled into the unknown.

Most of the store had been thrashed and the only thing intact I could find was a syringe with a purple luminous liquid within it. It was labelled "Plasmid 02 – Type K". I found some other syringes as well labelled in almost the same manner, just that they had different letters and numbers. All of them were empty except the Type K syringe. I felt assumed Cohen plunged all those into himself but left out this one as it slipped by his vision. Dilemma struck me as I held the syringe in my hand, staring into the mysterious purple fluid.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered, and stabbed myself in the wrist with the syringe. It stung sharply, but I ignored the pain and injected the fluid into my blood vessels. My vision began to blur and my head started to spin. I felt like I was on a ship in a storm and was in dire need of throwing up.

Fortunately, the storm cleared abruptly as a weird sensation came over me. My head felt much lighter and I seemed to have this strange clarity of mind. I wanted to pick up the syringe, reaching out to it. However, it flew straight into my hand before I even touched it.

"What?" I gasped in amazement. I tried doing the same for an advertisment on the wall, and it tore itself out slowly before crushing itself into a ball of paper and smacking into my open palm. It felt really strange. I began to feel slightly afraid, but then when Cohen returned to my mind confidence started to build within me.

I was ready to confront him.

**So what will happen next in the plasmid battle between Steinman and Cohen? :O**


End file.
